Adjacent Words

Riot definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

RI'OT, n.
1. In a general sense, tumult; uproar; hence technically, in law, a riotous assembling of twelve persons or more, and not dispersing upon proclamation.
The definition of riot must depend on the laws. In Connecticut, the assembling of three persons or more, to do an unlawful act by violence against the person or property of another, and not dispersing upon proclamation, is declared to be a riot. In Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the number necessary to constitute a riot is twelve.
2. Uproar; wild and noisy festivity.
3. Excessive and expensive feasting. 2 Peter 2.
4. Luxury.
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed today.
To run riot, to act or move without control or restraint.
RI'OT, v.i.
1. To revel; to run to excess in feasting, drinking or other sensual indulgences.
2. To luxuriate; to be highly excited.
No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows.
3. To banquet; to live in luxury; to enjoy.
How base is the ingratitude which forgets the benefactor, while it is rioting on the benefit!
4. To raise an uproar or sedition.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a public act of violence by an unruly mob [syn: riot, public violence]
2: a state of disorder involving group violence [syn: rioting, riot]
3: a joke that seems extremely funny [syn: belly laugh, sidesplitter, howler, thigh-slapper, scream, wow, riot]
4: a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity [syn: orgy, debauch, debauchery, saturnalia, riot, bacchanal, bacchanalia, drunken revelry] v
1: take part in a riot; disturb the public peace by engaging in a riot; "Students were rioting everywhere in 1968"
2: engage in boisterous, drunken merrymaking; "They were out carousing last night" [syn: carouse, roister, riot]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French riote rash action, noise, disorder Date: 13th century 1. archaic a. profligate behavior ; debauchery b. unrestrained revelry c. noise, uproar, or disturbance made by revelers 2. a. public violence, tumult, or disorder b. a violent public disorder; specifically a tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled together and acting with a common intent 3. a random or disorderly profusion <the woods were a riot of color> 4. one that is wildly amusing <the new comedy is a riot> II. intransitive verb Date: 14th century 1. to indulge in revelry or wantonness 2. to create or engage in a riot • rioter noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a a disturbance of the peace by a crowd; an occurrence of public disorder. b (attrib.) involved in suppressing riots (riot police; riot shield). 2 uncontrolled revelry; noisy behaviour. 3 (foll. by of) a lavish display or enjoyment (a riot of emotion; a riot of colour and sound). 4 colloq. a very amusing thing or person. --v.intr. 1 make or engage in a riot. 2 live wantonly; revel. Phrases and idioms: read the Riot Act put a firm stop to insubordination etc.; give a severe warning (from the name of a former act partly read out to disperse rioters). run riot 1 throw off all restraint. 2 (of plants) grow or spread uncontrolled. Derivatives: rioter n. riotless adj. Etymology: ME f. OF riote, rioter, rihoter, of unkn. orig.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Riot Ri"ot, n. [OF. riote, of uncertain origin; cf. OD. revot, ravot.] 1. Wanton or unrestrained behavior; uproar; tumult. His headstrong riot hath no curb. --Shak. 2. Excessive and exxpensive feasting; wild and loose festivity; revelry. Venus loveth riot and dispense. --Chaucer. The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day. --Pope. 3. (Law) The tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by an unlawful assembly of three or more persons in the execution of some private object. To run riot, to act wantonly or without restraint.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Riot Ri"ot, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Rioted; p. pr. & vb. n. Rioting.] [OF. rioter; cf. OD. ravotten.] 1. To engage in riot; to act in an unrestrained or wanton manner; to indulge in excess of luxury, feasting, or the like; to revel; to run riot; to go to excess. Now he exact of all, wastes in delight, Riots in pleasure, and neglects the law. --Daniel. No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows. --Pope. 2. (Law) To disturb the peace; to raise an uproar or sedition. See Riot, n., 3. --Johnson.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Riot Ri"ot, v. t. To spend or pass in riot. [He] had rioted his life out. --Tennyson.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(riots, rioting, rioted) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. When there is a riot, a crowd of people behave violently in a public place, for example they fight, throw stones, or damage buildings and vehicles. Twelve inmates have been killed during a riot at the prison. N-COUNT 2. If people riot, they behave violently in a public place. Last year 600 inmates rioted, starting fires and building barricades... VERB: V • rioter (rioters) The militia dispersed the rioters. N-COUNT • rioting At least fifteen people are now known to have died in three days of rioting. 3. If you say that there is a riot of something pleasant such as colour, you mean that there is a large amount of various types of it. All the cacti were in flower, so that the desert was a riot of colour... N-SING: a N of n [approval] 4. If someone in authority reads you the riot act, they tell you that you will be punished unless you start behaving properly. I'm glad you read the riot act to Billy. He's still a kid and still needs to be told what to do. PHRASE: V inflects 5. If people run riot, they behave in a wild and uncontrolled manner. Rampaging prisoners ran riot through Strangeways jail. PHRASE: V inflects 6. If something such as your imagination runs riot, it is not limited or controlled, and produces ideas that are new or exciting, rather than sensible. A conservatory offers the perfect excuse to let your imagination run riot. PHRASE: V inflects

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ri'-ut: Properly, "unrestrained behavior" of any sort, but in modern English usually connoting mob action, although such phrases as a "riotous banquet" are still in common use. the King James Version uses the word in the first sense, and it is retained by the Revised Version (British and American) in Lu 15:13; Tit 1:6; 1Pe 4:4 for asotos, asotia, "having no hope of safety," "profligate]." In Pr 23:20; 28:7 the Revised Version (British and American) has preferred "gluttonous," "glutton," in Ro 13:13, "revelling," and in 2Pe 2:13, "revel."

Burton Scott Easton

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Tumult, uproar, disturbance, commotion, broil, brawl, outbreak, fray, affray, altercation, squabble, quarrel, strife, mêlée. 2. Luxury, excess, revelry, wild festivity, excessive feasting. II. v. n. 1. Revel, carouse, luxuriate. 2. Be excited, be tumultuous. 3. Raise an uproar, riot, or sedition.

Moby Thesaurus

abundance, ado, affluence, affray, ample sufficiency, ampleness, amplitude, anarchism, anarchy, arise, assault, attack, avalanche, barbarize, batter, battering, battle, belly laugh, best seller, big hit, blue story, bonanza, bother, bountifulness, bountiousness, box, brawl, brilliant success, broil, brouhaha, brutalize, bud, bumper crop, burgeon, burn, burst forth, butcher, butchery, carouse, carry on, civil disorder, clash, close, collide, combat, come to blows, comedian, comedienne, commotion, contend, contest, copiousness, create a disturbance, create a riot, cut and thrust, cut loose, destroy, dirty joke, dirty story, disorderliness, disruption, distemper, disturbance, do, donnybrook, donnybrook fair, double entendre, duel, dustup, embroilment, emeute, ethnic joke, exchange blows, extravagance, exuberance, fad, fence, fertility, feud, fight, fight a duel, flood, flourish, flow, foison, foofaraw, forcible seizure, fracas, fray, free-for-all, frolic, full measure, fullness, fun, funny story, fuss, gag, gas, gasser, gemmate, general uprising, generosity, generousness, germinate, give and take, give satisfaction, go berserk, go on, good one, good story, grapple, grapple with, great abundance, great plenty, great success, grow, grow rank, gush, hammer, hassle, hell, helter-skelter, hit, howl, howler, hubbub, imbroglio, insurge, insurgence, insurgency, insurrect, insurrection, jacquerie, jape, jest, jestbook, joke, jostle, joust, killing, knock-down-and-drag-out, landslide, laugh, lavishness, lawlessness, lay waste, laying waste, leaf, leaf out, leave, levee en masse, liberality, liberalness, loot, looting, lots, luxuriance, luxuriate, make a commotion, make an ado, make trouble, massacre, maul, maximum, melee, meteoric success, misrule, mix it up, momentary success, more than enough, mount the barricades, much, mug, mutineer, mutiny, myriad, myriads, numerousness, obstreperousness, onslaught, opulence, opulency, outbreak, outburst, outpouring, overflow, overgrow, overrun, overthrow, pandemonium, panic, peasant revolt, pell-mell, pillage, pillaging, play, plenitude, plenteousness, plentifulness, plenty, point, pother, prevalence, prodigality, productiveness, profuseness, profusion, pullulate, put forth, put forth leaves, put out buds, putsch, quantities, quarrel, racket, rage, raise a ruckus, raise a rumpus, raise a storm, ramp, rampage, rant, rape, rassle, rave, rebel, rebellion, reluct, reluctate, repleteness, repletion, resounding triumph, revolt, revolute, revolution, revolutionize, rib tickler, rich harvest, rich vein, richness, rioting, riotousness, rise, rise up, rising, roar, roaring success, roil, roister, root, rough-and-tumble, roughhouse, row, ruckus, ruction, ruin, rumpus, run a tilt, run amok, run riot, run wild, sack, sacking, savage, scads, scramble, scream, scrimmage, scuffle, sensation, shindy, shoot, shoot up, shower, sick joke, sidesplitter, sight gag, skirmish, slaughter, smash, smash hit, sow chaos, sowing with salt, spar, spate, sport, spree, sprout, sprout up, stir, storm, story, stream, strife, strike, strike root, strive, struggle, substantiality, substantialness, subvert, superabundance, take root, tear, tear around, teemingness, terrorize, thrust and parry, tilt, to-do, tourney, triumph, trouble, tumult, turbulence, turmoil, tussle, unrest, unruliness, uprising, uproar, upspear, upsprout, vandalize, vegetate, violate, violation, violence, visual joke, wage war, war, wassail, wealth, wheeze, wow, wreck, wrestle, yarn